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New Orleans' Beauregard-Keyes House & Gardens

The parterre garden of the Beauregard-Keyes House in New Orleans' famed
French Quarter is a symphony of formal simplicity.

One of the most romantic and fascinating old houses in a city which
boasts of many interesting landmarks is the sumptuous house at 1113
Chartres Street, in the heart of the city's fable French Quarter. It was
constructed in 1826 by Joseph Le Carpentier, a well-to-do auctioneer.
When Le Carpentier built the house  now known as the
Beauregard-Keyes House  it also included a side garden on the
corner of Chartres and Ursulines Streets. This was unusual even then,
for most homes in the French Quarter had gardens tucked away out of
sight. Open on two sides, Le Carpentier's garden was described by some
at the time as "a jungle."

Seven years later, the property came into the possession of John A.
Merle, Switzerland's consul in New Orleans. His wife, Madame Anais
Philippon Merle, planned and planted a formal parterre garden and
enclosed it with brick walls. She had grill windows added so passersby
could look in at the a garden.

The new garden's design was based on Madame Merle's original plans.

In 1865, following the conclusion of the Civil War, Confederate General
Pierre G.T. Beauregard, returned to New Orleans and lodged in the house
for 18 months. Madame Merle's garden remained there for over 30 years,
but the house slowly sank into dilapidation and in 1925, having had many
owners already, the property changed hands again, its new owner
announcing his intention to erect a macaroni factory on the lot. But the
fact that General Beauregard had once lived in the house aroused the
interest of a group of fervent southern ladies, who raised funds to save
the house, even though the factory demolished the garden.

In 1944, a well-known novelist named Frances Parkinson Keyes came to
Louisiana and rented the house, eventually taking it over from the
ladies' group to start work on restoration. Mrs. Keyes made the cottage
her winter residence for a quarter of a century and wrote several of her
books here, among then Dinner At Antoine's,Chess Player (Paul
Morphy), and Blue Camellia. Mrs. Keyes employed the able
restoration architects Koch and Wilson, who transformed the house back
into the stately edifice it once had been.

In the 1950s, Mrs. Keyes also acquired the property on the corner and
planned to turn it back into a formal garden. Again with the aid of Koch
and Wilson, the factory building was demolished and the bricks were used
to rebuild the garden walls, complete with Madame Merle's grill windows.
The design of the new garden was also based on Madame Merle's original
plans, which were in safe-keeping in the archives of Tulane University.

In the 1960s, the Garden Study Club used Madame Merle's plan to replant
the garden with plants popular in New Orleans from the 1830s to the
1860s. The club has voluntarily provided care and maintenance to the
garden ever since.

Today, with lavish magnolias and sculpted boxwoods, the current garden
is designed to have seasonal blooms with a background of various
evergreens. The garden's center features a cast-iron fountain that adds
the pleasant gurgle of flowing water. Visitors are welcome to the
historic Beauregard-Keyes House, where guided tours are given by docents
in period costume weekdays from 10am to 3pm.